Hello,
I see from the basic intall of EE that it suggests you put your stylesheet in a template group. Can anyone tell me why you would do this and not just leave it loose on the server? E.g.
Why this

instead of this

The reason I’ve been doing the latter, is because (I save my templates as files and edit them with a text editor) and I can still have my file as a .css file and so when I edit it in my text editor it has the proper highlighting.  If I put it in a template group it is a .php file and is difficult to read.  It also means I can use it with local test files as well as on the server.

Apart from the tidiness of keeping all the files organised in the same way/inside EE template groups, what are the advantages of putting your css in there?

Thanks!

It totally fine either way. Some people like it being in the EE control panel so if they are out of town or away from there office, they can make changes to the css file via an internet browser. I personally keep my style sheets out of EE, but that is just me.

One plus is that if you use the {path=”“} variable to place your stylesheet then you can use variables from within your css file which may or may not help you out in certain cases.

Best wishes,

Mark

It also means you can use conditionals too which could be useful in some circumstances (having said that, I’ve never actually bothered - I always store mine in a separate folder on the server).

Mark, if you use the path variable to place the stylesheet, doesn’t this mean that it won’t get cached by the browser and will be dynamically regenerated with each pageview?

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick but I’ve avoided using dynamic css for that reason and instead put any dynamic styles in-page with the <style> tag.

HIya,

Yep that is one slight side-effect but most browsers will cache a css file anyway and if you write good CSS then it should be pretty compact anyway.

Best wishes,

Mark

I like using global variables in the CSS file for my image path - very easy to update when I go from my local server to the live site.

If you use the caching in a smart way (say every hour), there’s no reason an EE-generated CSS page (or Javascript) shouldn’t be a great way to go, since it will write a file out and serve that file until it is signaled it should be overwritten.

The main (only?) benefit is it’s more portable; you can work on it somewhere’s else but where you have FTP/WebDAV available (say the lobby of the Hilton in Austin during SXSW, or the Conference on Spasmic Flinching in Helsinki you’ve been really, really wanting to attend).

In addition, some folks are more comfortable using template code then making a .php file serve CSS correctly and use PHP embedded in the file. As of course, to some this is more important than the esoterica of php’s header() (no matter how easy it REALLY is).

Not to mention all that caching business. Bleh!

So in a way, couple the two and if you need dynamic features, you’re prolly better off with an EE template than a static .php file, as long as you performance tune and pay attention.

FWIW

pengwnfistoffury - 04 September 2008 11:20 AM

It totally fine either way. Some people like it being in the EE control panel so if they are out of town or away from there office, they can make changes to the css file via an internet browser. I personally keep my style sheets out of EE, but that is just me.

Yep, it doesn’t matter which you choose so long as it works for you.

For some sites I keep the CSS in templates because they’re easy to edit on the fly. For others, I use an editor and upload the CSS file to the server instead of using the templates.

One thing I’ve done with EE’s forums module is remove the CSS from the forums templates and place it as a file on the server. Looks to me like half the forums page is CSS, so page loading is quicker that way.

But as to EE sites I do both.

And I love CSSEdit.